Central India, Kutch, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and North Kerala
Many travellers to India only get to have a superficial view of our Rural parts. At their worst, tours organised to visit parts of Rural India can seem like village safaris with the locals on display and the tourists not really getting to see and understand the lives of the people and learn about the traditions and practices that have sustained them for ages. However, a few RT travel outfits have been consciously trying to change this by offering immersive experiences where travellers go to the villages and experience life there and their experience of rural India is not restricted to a few folk performances in the setting of a luxury hote. Among them is Holidays in Rural India, an outfit set up by Indophile Sophie Hartman in 2015.
The tours organised by Holidays in Rural India are highly tailor made and the experiences gently curated. Sophie describes them as “a lovely synergy of guest and super-local guide or host”.
The outfit started by offering curated multi-day tours in Central India. They have slowly expanded to other parts like Kutch and parts of South India (especially the areas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala that are part of the Western Ghats).
Holidays in Rural India only works with accommodation providers who have ethical employment practices and use guides and guiding organisations with good principles. The outfit also encourages the use of legs rather than motorised vehicles for exploration and the food is almost always eaten at local restaurants or homes.
While the itineraries ensure that the guests get to see the sights and sounds of the locales being visited, the attempt is to create immersive experiences. For example, Sophie tries to find out her guests' special interests so that they can make deep connections with people living apparently very different lives to them. So a man who worked with wood spent a morning at a carpenter's home workshop, a cricket fan umpired a cricket tournament in a village in north Chhattisgarh, a weaver visited weaving villages, a humanist chaplain and teacher of the philosophy of religion attended a Gond wedding and drank mahua and danced the afternoon away with the village priest—the trips are about interaction and exchange and not just gawping and taking snaps!
Price: £2,500 (Rs 2.3 lakh) on average for a couple for a two-week trip
Read more: www.holidaysinruralindia.com
Slow Travel
The tours organised by Holidays in Rural India ensure ‘spending’ is done in rural areas at the bottom of India's social hierarchy. The outfit works with ethically run hotels and homestays and ensures that these properties and other partners follow RT practices. Sophie Hartman, the founder, runs races throughout the year to raise money for FRANK Water and their work in India. She takes guests to visit villages where FRANK is operating so they can see first hand the problems caused by lack of access to safe water and the benefits that come with its arrival. They all then tend to start donating!
